Third Mission and Local Activities

The majority of the activities of the Faculty take place in the Lazio region and more specifically at the Sapienza headquarters where the didactic centre of Policlinico Umberto I is located for medical area activities and at the Polo center Pontino (the largest external didactic centre of the university). There are also other territorial locations, including extra-regional ones.

Regarding national level, the Faculty has always been particularly active within the national coordination concerns such as the Permanent Conference of the Presidents of the Degree Course in Medicine and Surgery, the Permanent Conference of the Presidents of the Degree Course of the Health Professions and the Permanent Conference of the Faculties and Schools of Medicine (of which the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine is currently President).At international level, the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine has long been involved in a process of internationalization, which has resulted in the establishment of an interfaculty masters degree course in medicine and surgery in English and the recent activation of the interfaculty degree course in Bionformatics, also entirely in English. These initiatives are in line with the philosophy of the Faculty to improve its international appeal for students and increase the course catalogue in English. To this end, the Faculty also makes use of memoranda of understanding and collaboration agreements with prestigious international university institutions for integrated activities of teaching, research and third mission initiatives.The term third mission refers to the set of activities with which universities interact directly with society, providing a contribution that accompanies traditional research missions (in which one interacts predominantly with scientific communities) and didactics (in which there is an interaction with a specific fraction of society, the students).

There are two possible forms of third mission:1) Economic enhancement of knowledge;2) Cultural and social.

In the first case, the goal is to promote economic growth by transforming the knowledge produced from research into a form of knowledge that can be exploited for production purposes. In the second case, the aim is to produce public-social-cultural assets that increase the well-being of society and encourage the process of scientific knowledge specifically organized for this purpose.These assets can be:a) high cultural content through initiatives also in collaboration with territorial institutions such as museums, archaeological excavations, scientific dissemination, organization of exhibitions, concerts, conferences and readings, etc;b) educational value through regional, national and international projects with schools of various types and levels, without forgetting continuous training, adult education, long life learning;c) directed more strictly in a social sense through voluntary consultations with the community involving marginal individuals and/or groups in difficulty.

The third mission of economic exploitation of knowledge:The Faculty organizes and promotes events of social relevance and scientific dissemination for students of Medicine and Surgery and Health Professions, PhD students, post-graduates, professors, researchers, technical-administrative staff, citizens, as part of the strategic goal of Sapienza, which is to "Pursue socially responsible development" and to transform acquired knowledge into socially "monetizable" form. The Third Mission's activities of economic valorisation of knowledge carried out by teachers in the pharmaceutical area have as their main purpose the valorisation of scientific knowledge deriving from the research performed by the various groups and by the following actions: a) patent production, management of intellectual property rights and subsequent exploitation by interested companies; b) research and/or consulting activities on behalf of third parties; c) collaboration agreements and national and international research projects. d) creation of companies such as university spin-offs (Molirom s.r.l.) and innovative start-ups (Alchemical Dynamics s.r.l.)

The third cultural-social mission:The Faculty is directly, and through the various departments, involved in public engagement activities through the organization of specific events (open days) for potential future students of degree courses of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine. Activities also include raising awareness, through participation in debates and/or television interviews, regarding the problems of research in strengthening diagnoses and the treatment of diseasesRegarding health protection, it is important to underline that many professors of the various Departments of the Faculty carry out integrated functions of research, teaching and assistance. Many of the professors are in fact involved in the clinical trials of the Policlinico Umberto I and of the ASL Latina and in this latter location, local screening activities are coordinated. In continuing education in medicine, many teachers organize and participate in Higher Education Courses, 1st and 2nd level Masters and Continuing Medical Training Courses (ECM) in the Roman and Pontine area.Finally, the Faculty participates in various placement initiatives both through direct participation in specific activities and through collaboration with public and private institutions. In particular, the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine manages a specific project to monitor the post-graduate course of the students of the masters degree course in medicine and surgery in collaboration with the Pontine Pole and with the Order of Physicians of the Province of Latina.The inseparability of didactic research and health assistance is underlined in Article 1 of the Memorandum of Understanding between Sapienza University and the Lazio Region of 10 February 2016 and is carried out in the various areas of institutional collaboration with the Healthcare agencies of reference, including through participation in the governing body of the AOU Policlinico Umberto I and the Coordinating body foreseen for the ASL of Latina.